I was playing cleanup on Monday, that is patrolling the corridors and picking up the orange trash bags from the Highlands Plateau Pickup. Over 50 volunteers hit the corridor roads this past Saturday . I want to thank the Highlands Chamber of Commerce, especially Beverly Wichman for her coordination of another successful event.
Every year I see the same trash in the orange bags that the volunteers collect. There are the plastic and aluminum cola and beer bottles, the empty potatoes chip bags, the cans filled with snuff spit, and all sorts of paper products. There is also a substantial amount of construction debris such as insulation, plastic wrap and scraps of wood and metal.
Monday afternoon I was at the city limits sign on NC 28 retrieving the big orange litter sign that I had deployed to warn motorist on Saturday. About fifty years beyond the town limits I saw a wooden structure with exposed nails in the middle of the road.
I warned two approaching vehicles and quickly ran out to retrieve the hazard.
I know where it came from and where it was destined. A contractor crew had loaded a truck with a demolished deck. The truck was headed to the Rich Gap transfer station. The load was not a secured and the wooden gate in the photo fell onto the road. I wonder if the driver of the truck noticed the object from his load on his return trip from the transfer station and just kept driving. That may have happened since I was retrieving it after the transfer station had closed.
The question is how can we improve the problem of trash and litter on the roadways? I use the term we, instead of the town. The immediate response by some is that the town should do something like have crews pickup the corridors coming into the town. My response is that the town may need to reconsider pickups on the roadways inside the town, but that would be a limited solution. Our employees cannot go beyond the town limits. That road obstruction was just outside the town limits. While I know our employees would have done the same thing I did in retrieving the danger, technically it would be beyond their responsibility. The town limits stop at the Sequoyah Dam, so the vast majority of the litter on that scenic byway is beyond the town.
So what are some solutions? First, maybe the county solid waste department should have a covering of construction material policy for those using their facilities. Expecting law enforcement to enforce such a policy would be a hit or miss proposition, but all those vehicles eventually arrive at the landfill facilities.
Another idea is to have a program led by a civic organization, maybe the Chamber of Commerce, to pay a company to do litter sweeps of the corridors on a regular schedule, not just a volunteer effort in the spring. Under such a program concerned citizens could donate to support the program.
Finally, maybe local businesses could support such an anti-litter initiative. Our local ABC Store sells a huge amount of small, plastic, one shot bottles of liquor. Many of these bottles land up in those orange trash bags, as well as the many Bud Light cans and bottles sold at the local convenience stores and gas stations. Maybe these businesses could be participants in such an effort and even be a part of a campaign to make folks aware of littering.
These ideas would need a community commitment, not just a simple position of “just let the town take care of it.” I hope in the coming weeks some of the ideas I have suggested can become a reality.